Skidmore College Creative Matter Economics Faculty Scholarship Economics 6-2016 Lockouts and Player Productivity: Evidence from the National Hockey League Qi Ge Skidmore College Michael J. Lopez Skidmore College Follow this and additional works at: https://creativematter.skidmore.edu/econ_fac_schol Recommended Citation Qi Ge and Michael J. Lopez, "Lockouts and Player Productivity: Evidence from the National Hockey League," Journal of Sports Economics, 17(5), June 2016, pp. 427-452. http://jse.sagepub.com/content/17/5/427.refs This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Economics at Creative Matter. It has been accepted for inclusion in Economics Faculty Scholarship by an authorized administrator of Creative Matter. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Lockouts and Player Productivity: Evidence from the National Hockey League∗ Qi Ge Michael Lopez March 2016 Abstract: We implement a propensity score matching technique to present the first evidence on the impact of professional sports lockouts on player productivity. In particular, we utilize a unique natural experiment from the 2012-13 National Hockey League (NHL) lockout, during which approximately 200 players decided to play overseas, while the rest stayed in North America. We separate players based on their nationality and investigate the effect of playing abroad on post-lockout player performance. We find limited evidence of enhanced productivity among European players, and no evidence of a benefit or drawback for North American players. Our study contributes to the understanding of lockouts in professional sports and the general discussion of labor disputes and worker productivity. Keywords: lockout; professional sports league; player performance; matching; propen- sity scores JEL Classification Numbers: J24 J52 Z2 Z22 ∗We thank Peter von Allmen, Brian M.